


Reuniting in the Razor

by orphan_account



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Action, Friendship, Wholesome, spoilers for borderlands 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:27:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24271321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After losing her abilities at the hands of Troy, a now powerless Maya travels to Pandora to try and rediscover her badass energy from before. A chance encounter with an old friend helps her a great deal.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Reuniting in the Razor

Ever since Troy had sapped away Maya’s powers, the former Siren had returned to Pandora. It was a way to re-find her badass mojo that she had evidently lost whilst guarding Athenas. A calm, tranquil world where the greatest danger was the odd ratch was hardly the right way to keep one’s skills honed, and now that Maya lacked her Siren abilities to fall back upon, it seemed like the time to return to a world she had called her home for several chaotic years, and rediscover what had atrophied in her years shooting Ratch on Athenas. 

Hell, living on the deserted hellscape that was Pandora was probably not only more entertaining than living on Athenas, but arguably more peaceful. For a people that abhorred violence and loved tranquility, the damned bells of peace drove the former siren half-mad. At least on Pandora, chaos and insanity were to be expected. All Maya had on her person was her ECHO Device, her guns, and a shield. Enough to ensure no random fanatic cultist would turn her into a gory mess upon the sand, yet also not so much as to render her wish to improve pointless. Blowing things up with a rocket launcher was indeed wonderfully satisfying, but when it came to growing more skilled, it was hardly the best way to do things, after all. 

Maya had returned to Pandora at a place known as the “Devil’s Razor”. Apparently, the Crimson Raiders had moved to another continent of Pandora, one where the moronic cultists had moved to en-masse for one reason or another. Still, if it was where the bandits and deadly wildlife remained, it was where Maya wished to be. Pandora isn’t truly Pandora if there aren’t crazed maniacs raving about meat in earshot, after all. Thinking of those people reminded Maya of Krieg. Apparently the big lug was still on Pandora, somewhere. She’d have to seek him out, at some point. She promised that she’d come back, after all. 

The feeling of the sand under Maya’s feet was… nostalgic. Athenas was a tropical world, full of humid air, and warm days. She got used to it, but the simple pleasures of exploring a desert, looking for things to fight, guns to loot, and old friends to talk to. Lilith had mentioned that a number of old allies had set up in the Devil’s Razor, though not where. At first, she assumed that she was referring to the Roland’s Rest raider stronghold, but that couldn’t truly be it. Crimson Raiders that Maya had never met were hardly old allies, and despite talk of a bandit warchief that would soon be coming to assist, she doubted that was the person that Lilith was referring to either. 

Out of curiosity, and some boredom, Maya set off across the desert to explore. 

The feeling of her left arm being covered along with her right was surreal. Previously, she had kept her arm bare, a way of showing off her tattoos to any who would attack or underestimate her. It was a habit instilled in her by the Brotherhood of the Impending Storm, and their asshole leadership at the time. She was forbidden from hiding her tattoos, and the practice of wearing clothing that revealed her glowing ink had simply remained with her well into her adult life. Ever since she lost her tattoos, however, Maya had made more of an effort to dress… normally. Instead of her ordinary tight jumpsuit, Maya donned a baggy shirt and hoodie, and pulled a cloth mask over her mouth and nose to allow her to remain breathing when gusts of wind blew the sand up into her face. Beyond her long, electric-blue locks, she was indistinguishable from the siren she used to be. 

Maya was forced away from her musings as the ground exploded beneath her.   
“Shit!” The former vault hunter yelled out as she collapsed backwards, toppled back by a huge monstrosity that had been hiding beneath the ground. A huge beast- a spiderant, Maya identified- had burst from the ground once it had sensed unwitting prey above it. It was incredible in its size, and electrical energy sparked and flickered from the barbed carapace on its front. Rolling to her feet, Maya quickly clutched her incendiary SMG in her grip, firing upon the monster before it could adjust to the harsh light of the desert. It must not have expected such agile prey, and let out a roar of pain as the fire-coated bullets collided against its armoured form. One or two bullets grazed against the beast’s thorax, each time bringing an enraged and agonised roar from the spiderant. 

Rearing onto its hind legs, the spiderant drove its powerful limbs into the sand, causing a cascade of dust and electrical energy to wash over the former Siren. A cry of pain departed from Maya’s thankfully covered mouth, as she rolled backwards. With one hand, Maya pushed her hair out of her eyes, dust and electrical energy having blown it over her face, as she squeezed down on the trigger of the gun held in the other. Fire danced across the Spiderant’s carapace, burning away at the creature’s armoured body. Maya wished that she could get an easier shot at the beast’s thorax again, but quickly chose to simply concentrate fire. One or two of the bullets were even swallowed by the spiderant, bringing the beast what Maya could only imagine was intense pain. Slowly, the spiderant began to falter, its legs losing a battle to keep the monster standing under the weight of fire, bullets, and pain. Maya almost felt sorry for it, if it wasn’t for the fact that the prick attacked her first. Before the monster could truly lay down and die under the siege of gunfire, however, something rather unexpected occurred. 

It exploded. 

A massive explosion of heat flung Maya back once more (she was getting rather irritated by how many times her ass was getting introduced to the sand beneath her) with a soft gasp. She knew that sometimes, powerful creatures would shower her in a variety of different guns, but a much-desired “lootsplosion” was never before accompanied by a violent detonation of the beast in question.   
“You picked a wrong mother-cluckin’ time to get lost!” A… familiar voice spoke. Maya knew she had heard that voice before, even if she couldn’t see the person speaking. It was different to when she last heard it, more mature, but still wholly recognisable.  
“Tina?” Maya groaned out, rubbing her forehead to attempt to rid herself of the inevitable headache that was to come.  
“How do you know my name? Did you hear about it from Sheega?”   
“Who the hell is Sheega?” Maya questioned. Before she could arise to her feet, Maya observed a woman stepping past the spiderant that now lay in chunks across the desert, and towards her. A mask covered her face, albeit one of a monstrous rabbit, rather than the simple black cloth obscuring Maya’s features. A rocket launcher was clutched in her grip, grenades hanging from her belt, and light armour covering her body. Her hair was a vivid blonde tone, with sand clinging to it for dear life.   
“My ex-girl! She joined you! Told you about me, didn’t she?!”   
“Tina, please, calm down.” Maya groaned. Tina hefted the RPG, pointing it directly at Maya’s face. Shit. “Wait, Tina! It’s me!”  
“Who’s me?” Tina questioned, cocking her head to one side. Maya reached up and grasped at the cloth covering her face, and wrenched it down.   
“Maya. We used to be friends!”   
“Ohh… Sorry, sugarbutt. Thought you were one of those culty weirdos.” Tina lowered the rocket launcher, thankfully, and set it upon the ground. 

Tina crossed the small gap between her and Maya, and held out a hand for the former siren. Maya noticed the variety of new scars, tattoos, and muscles rippling on the young woman’s body. Regardless of her mental state, Maya could tell that Tina had grown into a capable badass in her own right. Maya took Tina’s hand, and allowed the blonde to pull her back up to her feet.   
“Why are you here?” Maya inquired of the shorter woman.  
“I live here?” Tina shrugged, hefting the rocket launcher back upon her shoulder. “Why’re you here, hugaboo?”  
“You know the Calypso’s?”   
“Yep! Had to rescue Hammerlock from one of their prisons on Eden-6 a little bit ago. We made pizza. It was fun.” Maya decided not to question it.  
“Troy took my powers from me. Apparently they can both leech sirens. It was a dick move, but I sorta realised that I needed to get better? So I came back here. Figured that if there was anywhere to become a good fighter again, it was Pandora.”  
“Oh! Cuz everything here tries to kill ya!”  
“Exactly. If you can thrive on Pandora, you can thrive anywhere.” Maya pulled her mask back up over her face, and sat down upon the sand. Tina mimicked her, however she sat upon her rocket launcher. Maya doubted that was wholly safe, but knew Tina likely understood what she was doing.

“So you lost your super cool powers?” Tina questioned, leaning forwards on her improvised seating, and resting a hand upon her chin.   
“Yeah, I did.” Maya rolled back her sleeve to show Tina her newfound missing tattoos. Tina let out a low whistle at the sight.  
“So two assholes beat you, and you think you’re a done-deal?”   
“I think I need to become a better fighter, yes.”  
“Oh! Well then, it’s a good thing you have Tina! Trainer extraordinaire, and support person too!”   
“Trainer extraordinaire?” Maya raised an eyebrow at that.  
“Who trained your sexy ass so you could beat Piston? Hm…?”  
“Didn’t your training consist of ‘eat cookies’?”  
“I don’t remember.” Tina admitted, “But I know I trained ya right then, and I can train ya right now!”   
“I guess it’s better than nothing.” Maya conceded.

Tina didn’t respond for a moment. Maya was worried that she had insulted the young demowoman, that she had hurt her feelings. She didn’t exactly think that Tina would do anything to hurt her, but she still didn’t relish the idea of hurting a friend of hers.  
“You seriously think you got that crappy?”  
“All I had to shoot on Athenas for ages was Ratch, Tina. Doesn’t exactly keep my skills advanced.” Maya informed the blonde.  
“Mebbeh. But you know what? You’re still a badass!” Tina cheered, “You kicked Jack’s butt, you blew up that tree dude, you killed a big monster! A lot! Who else can say that?”  
“Brick, Lilith, Mordecai, Axton…” Maya began to list off.  
“Nope! You did! You kicked them all in the balls!”   
“So why did I lose to a goddamn streamer then?”  
“Cuz no one wins every time.” Tina admitted, her voice low, “I… I think I’m lucky? I got my losses out of the way sorta early in my life. But you know what? I think it’s dumb to think you’re bad just because some jerk beat ya once. You lived, didn’t you?”   
“So what should I do now, accept that and forgive him for it?”  
“Nahhhh, gurl. You get a big gun and you BLOW HIM UP.”   
“You know… I think I can do that…”  
“Of course you can! Come back to Boom Town! Brick and Mordy are there, they can help ya get some super cool guns, and you can stay here with us for a while!”

Maya rose back to her feet, a small smile gracing her features.  
“Tina, you know, I’m not sure if I really… believe this? But I think I can try, at least.”  
“Girl, if you try, you’ll get this shizz done. I know you will, okay? You just need to remember that you’re a badass too, and you’ll be right back to before!”  
“Minus my tattoos.”  
“That just means you can get newer, better ones!”  
“Heh, you’re not wrong, Tina.”  
“Of course I’m not. Now let’s go!” Tina shouted, a laugh emanating from her mask as she grabbed her rocket launcher once more, and began to walk towards an old mining town in the distance. Maya shook her head for a moment, a grin obscured by the cloth covering her face, before following her old friend.


End file.
